Acknowledgement First I would like to thank Ona Vileikis Tamayo, for her supports and dedication during the internship and for bringing us this opportunity to get involved in the projects. I also would like to thank my Uzbek colleagues especially Sanjar Allayarov the cultural officer for their openness and supports which brought along a pleasant environment to work in, both in the city of Bukhara and Tashkent. Furthermore I want to thank all the students to whom I worked with, my colleagues from RLICC and UCL for their dedication to works and all the valuable experiences we gained in group works. At last, I would like to express my gratitude to RLICC centre that allow us have precious experiences in the international organizations. The quality and quantity of learning for me during these 7 weeks is as much that I can found my future career plans on them.
Contents 1. Introduction.........................................................................................................3 2. Uzbekistan..........................................................................................................4 3.
Description of the internship...............................................................................5
3.1. Historic City of Bukhara Management Plan Preparation....................................6 3.2. Chor Bokr and Bahaoddin Naqsh Band architectural Complex Risk management plan.......................................................................7 3.3. Visual Glossaries................................................................................................8 4.
A visit with ICOMOS inspector...........................................................................9
5. Conclusion..........................................................................................................9
1. Introduction This report is a short description of what I did during my internship at UNESCO office of Uzbekistan during my 7 weeks stay. The first 6 weeks took place at Historic City of Bukhara inscribed as World Heritage property on 1993. At the beginning of the internship I formulated several learning goals, which I wanted to achieve to understand the functioning and working conditions of an International organization; -
to see what is like to work in a professional environment;
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to see if this kind of work is a possibility for my future career;
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to challenge my gained skills and knowledge;
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to see what skills and knowledge I still need to work in a professional environment;
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to learn about the organizing of a research project (planning, preparation, permissions etc.)
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to get fieldwork experience/collect data in an environment unknown for me;
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to get experience in working in another country/with persons from another culture;
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to enhance my communication skills;
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to build a network.
Our International Group, first Day meeting in the UNESCO officeof Tashkent, Tashkent, July 2013
2. Uzbekistan Uzbekistan locating in Central Asia is the first populated country of the region. The rich history of the Uzbekistan goes back to the first millennium BC when Iranian nomads chose the area for permanent settlement and civilisation began. Since then cities like Bukhara and Samarqand started incarnation the culture of inhabitant. Silk Road was one of the noticeable reasons to bring wealth and development in the country which now we can see the remnant of glorious life they´ve had in Uzbekistan rich cultural heritage. There are 4 World Heritage Sites designated under Uzbekistan name in the UNESCO world heritage list.
Uzbekistan Š CIA online library
3.
Description of the internship
Our multidisciplinary team included architects, historians and archaeologists from Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation, University College of London and University of Tashkent. We were working on preparation of the Management Plan of the Historic City of the Bukhara. Moreover, as Uzbekistan is one the countries submitted in the serial transnational nomination of the Silk Roads, we were also working on Risk management plan of the two nominated properties: Chor-Bakr and Bahouddin Naqshaband architectural complexes. The internship included several tasks individually (i) and in the group (G): - Surveying residential parcels of Bukhara for management plan (G) - Buffer Zone Verification (G) - Recommendation for management of the city of the Bukhara (G) - Visual Glossaries for City of Bukhara (i) - Visual Glossary for Chor Bokr architectural Complex (i) - Visual Glossary for Bahaoddin Naqsh Band architectural copmelx (i) - Impact assesment of Chor Bokr architectural Complex (G) - Risk management plan of Chor Bokr architectural Complex (i) - Risk management plan for Bahaoddin Naqsh Band architectural complex (i)
The entire tasks were directly supervised and guided by Ona Vileikis Tamayo.
3.1.
Historic City of Bukhara Management Plan Preparation
Our engagement to preparing the management plan of the Bukhara was by surveying the houses located in the Historic city boundary as well as buffer zone verification. This survey already has been conducted by sevral groups since 2005, we were the last group who finished the remained houses which. We conduct a survey of all the houses by filling a questionnaire about the character of the building by the help of the owners, evaluating the historic values and documenting the parcels by taking photos –indoors and outdoors- and quick measurement of the building sizes. To document the valuable parcels more accurate we used Nara Grid as framework. After doing on field survey the office works had happened by digitalising all the data by the use of Microsoft products, Photo editing tools and AutoCAD for the drawings. The purpose of digitalizing was to prepare the data for GIS database of the Historic City of the Bukhara for further monitoring and management planning. The last days of our presence in Bukhara we worked on the Buffer Zone verification by taking photos and notes, to develop them more in detail and in recommendation format later in the Tashkent office. Eventually after conduction the documentation of all the parcels, we had several meeting discussion to evaluate strength and weakness of the city management system as a World Heritage site. In conclusion we prepared Recommendations for different levels and stakeholders.
Historic City of Bukhara Š nomination dossier, UNESCO
3.2.
Chor Bokr and Bahaoddin Naqsh Band architectural Complex Risk management plan
Both complexes located in Bukhara region and submitted in World Heritage tentative list on 2008. In Chor Bokr Complex we did an elaborated condition assessment of three parts of the complex. I used my background knowledge to arrange complete Earthen Architecture pathologies and on the field work concentrated more on visual documentation of the all three target areas. In the net stage after rectifying photos we mapped all the present deterioration of the surveyed parts by using AutoCAD and Photoshop. I did the same condition assessment for Bahaoddin Naqshband complex individually. Later on at Tashkent office based on our study and the visual glossary, with the help of Ona, I prepared the Risk assessment and Risk management plan respectively for both of the sites.
A snapshot view from Bahaoddin Naqshband Risk Management Plan
Rectified photo of Block 03 at Chor Bakr Complex
3.3.
Visual Glossaries
Another task I was working on was preparing visual glossaries for all the areas we had worked on, namely boundaries and Buffer zone of the Historic City of Bukhara, Chor Bokr and for Bahaoddin Naqshband complexes. The glossaries include visual and descriptive definitions of threats and disturbances that are jeopardising the authenticity and integrity of the sites.
This “before and after” situation had happened during our 6 weeks stay. This was a good example of «lack of efficient legislation and city management» of the threat which endangering the OUV of the WH boundary
A snapshot view of the Chor Bokr visual glossary of threats and disturbances
4.
A visit with ICOMOS inspector
Thanks to our supervisor and UNESCO cultural officer, my Persian colleague and I had the chance of accompanying ICOMOS inspector, Chahryar Adle, who was there to evaluate the nomination dossiers of the submitted properties of Bukhara. Our visit was to Bahaoddin NashBand complex and as it was after our group work on the complex we had been educated enough to express our recommendation and comments on the condition of the site.
5. Conclusion Living for 6 weeks in World Heritage site of Bukhara and having the chance of communicating with locals and stakeholders closely direct me to choose my thesis topic on Impact assessment of World Heritage designation on its context. On the other hand by work of two of my colleagues on Patrimonita concept there in Bukhara I´ve been educated about the World Heritage on Youth Hands. Hence I started a parallel research on this subject on Iranian children and youth to introduce this idea to my own country. Uzbekistan Internship was one of my most fruitful experience that I had in the heritage field and my career plan is going to be based on the practical knowledge I gained during these 7 week.
Boloxona, A traditional space in vernacular houses, Bukhara, July 2013